Cambria Automobiles has acquired a Land Rover and Jaguar car dealership from Lookers.

It is the first Land Rover franchise for Cambria, and brings its Jaguar portfolio up to six sites, four of which are in or near Greater London.

The £10.47m deal is for the trade and assets of Lookers’ Hadley Green Garages site in Barnet, North London.

The consideration for the acquisition comprises £3.75 million for the freehold property, £5.0 million of goodwill, £0.46 million for fixed assets, with the remaining £1.26 million for used cars, parts stock, demonstrator vehicles, accruals and prepayments.

Cambria said it is the group’s intention to draw down a new term loan in respect of the freehold property acquired, with the balance of the consideration to be satisfied using its existing financing facilities.

The acquired dealership’s combined management accounts for 2013 show revenue of £46 million and, on an adjusted basis, Cambria estimates the profit before tax for same period was £0.7 million.

Mark Lavery, Cambria’s chief executive, said: “Following our success in turning around underperforming dealerships, it is very pleasing to announce the acquisition of our first Land Rover and the addition of a sixth Jaguar dealership, which are expected to be rapidly earnings enhancing and strengthen our brand portfolio mix.”

“The Land Rover brand continues to perform exceptionally well and has been acknowledged as the most valued new car franchise by the National Franchised Dealers Association’s Dealer Attitude Survey.

“Cambria is already working closely with Jaguar which is going from strength to strength and the new product roll-out, scheduled for 2015 onwards, is very exciting.

“The purchase of this dealership is very much part of our growth strategy and the board expects the acquisition to make a considerable contribution to the group’s performance in 2015.”

Lavery said there were considerable opportunities in the business to increase efficiencies and maximise the profit opportunities, put by analysts to be in the region of £1m in profit in the next financial year and £1.5m subsequently. The Jaguar business is loss-making currently. Lavery said new Jaguar product next year, plus improvements in the used car operation and a new-build aftersales workshop will put the business back on track.

He said the deal had been in the frame since Lookers bought the business as part of its Colborne acquisition in March and that if complies with Land Rover’s market area strategy.

Separately, Cambria has added its second Jeep franchise, which will sit alongside its existing Fiat business in Oldham.

Guests enjoyed the VIP Aston Martin Racing hospitality throughout the day

Le Mans 24 Heures pre nightfall, racing is hot!

Aston Martin VIP – 24 hours

Guest Vili Ma’asi didn’t miss an opportunity to get a photo with Head of Aston Martin Racing Dave Richards

The GTE AM Class 2014 Winners 24 Hours of Le Mans

Hosts, Gavin Hawkes – General Manager Aston Martin Brentwood & Matthew Overall, General Manger at Grange Jaguar Brentwood holding the Winning Trophy! Guests also had the opportunity to have their photo taken with some of their memorabilia and the Winning Trophy.

The evening finished with a BBQ at the Chateau to say thank you to everyone who had made this trip a truly special event. Looking forward to 2015!

Grange Aston Martin Brentwood has ranked number one Best Service Provider 2013 in the UK and South Africa. The figures were taken from Aston Martin’s CSI Purchase Experience Survey and measured the overall Dealer Relative Performance of 23 dealerships nationwide and in South Africa.

Gavin Hawkes, General Manager of Grange Aston Martin Brentwood, said “We pride ourselves on our commitment to excellent customer service and this is recognition of all the hard work the team has put in over the last 12 months. Outstanding customer service is at the very core of our business and this achievement is made all the more sweeter knowing that in comparison to many of our competitors we are a relatively small team, demonstrating that delivering excellence is not in numbers but in focused, motivated and committed teamwork. We measure our success not only in terms of the amount of cars we sell which was 18% up on 2012 but also in providing an exceptional level of service similar to that of a 5-star hotel experience. I am convinced the high percentage of recommendations and return custom is a reflection of this and has been paramount to our success over the last 12 months.”

An unprecedented level of staff donations to BEN has seen Cambria Automobiles awarded the ‘platinum’ quality mark for its support for the automotive charity.

This acknowledges the contribution made by the AM100 group’s 1,000-plus staff directly from their salaries each month. The payroll giving scheme sees staff donate between £5 and £50 per month. About 27% of Cambria’s ‘associates’ give this way.

Chief executive Mark Lavery said: “Seven and a half years ago when the group was incorporated we invited BEN in to give a presentation about the work it does as the only charity supporting our sector, and without any pressure from management, associates have taken their social responsibility very seriously and have chosen to donate.

“I understand from BEN, the level of payroll giving in an organisation of Cambria’s size is unprecedented. But it’s easy to see why when you consider the important work BEN does.”

Cambria has been ‘gold’ supporters, but after continued endorsement of payroll giving and “going the extra mile for BEN”, its status has been upgraded. BEN representatives are invited to speak at each Cambria annual conference and visit each dealership every other year. Cambria recently made a £10,000 donation to the charity.

The all-aluminium F-TYPE Coupé – the most dynamically capable, performance-focused sports car that Jaguar has ever produced – is available in three versions: F-TYPE R, F-TYPE S and the F-TYPE.

The new F-TYPE Coupé is the most dynamically capable, performance-focused, production Jaguar ever

The model line-up is headlined by the F-TYPE R Coupé, its 550PS/680Nm 5.0-litre V8 supercharged engine enabling acceleration from 0-60mph in 4.0-seconds, and a top speed of 186mph (limited)

The F-TYPE R Coupé features Jaguar’s second-generation Electronic Active Differential which works in parallel with a new Torque Vectoring by braking system to deliver enhanced agility and exploitable handling at the limit

F-TYPE Coupé builds on Jaguar’s industry-leading expertise in aluminium delivering torsional rigidity of 33,000 Nm/degree – it is the most torsionally rigid production Jaguar ever

I overheard Mary-Ann on the phone to a customer explaining that we don’t lend out cars for special occasions and when she put the phone down I asked what the call was about.

Mrs Leat had arranged for a Bentley Continental to take her son Connor and friends, Ryan and Jade, to the school leaving prom. On the Wednesday, two days before the prom, Mrs Leat rang to arrange the final details only to be told the company had gone bankrupt. She rang around many garages in despair offering £500 for a nice car to take the three teenagers to their prom. She had encountered countless knock backs during her calls to the prestige dealers in Swindon.

I rang her to get a feel of the situation. She explained everything whilst in tears. She felt she had let her son down and was left with a helpless feeling that nothing could be done at such short notice. I asked her to come down and see me and we would see what we could do.

Upon arrival, a very teary eyed Mrs Leat got out of the car along with Connor and came into the dealership. I walked them around the site and told her to pick whichever one she wanted and I would drive her. Mrs Leat erupted into tears again. Connor chose the XK convertible at first but then due to Jade’s ball gown had to have a rethink and went for the XJ.

Mrs Leat then offered me £500 which we declined and said it was our gift. Again crying she left the dealership. Thirty minutes later I received a phone call from the Swindon Advertiser. It turned out Mrs Leat had some connections and had asked the Advertiser to do an article on us.

The following day Mrs Leat, Connor, Ryan and Jade all came to the dealership along with a reporter and a photographer to take a photo shoot that went on the front page and page 3 of the paper. It was at that point I told them the good news that we were now not taking them to the prom in the XJ. Bernard Harris and Alan Pritchard had each volunteered to give up their Friday night as well and we took them in 3 separate cars: F-TYPE 5.0 S, F-TYPE 3.0 S and XK Convertible. Needless to say they arrived in style and were the talk of the prom having starred on the front page of the town paper that day.